World Food (Hardcover)

Chapter One

The authors have selected three very different farms from different parts of the world-the Philippines, Ecuador, and the United States-to illustrate the varieties of farming operations. The student should not take from this that these are the only types of farms found in these countries. All types of farms can be found in all countries, that is, subsistence, moderate size family, and large commercial farms occur in all countries including the United States.

All over the world food comes from farms to nonfarm peoples. However, the similarity stops there. The size, crops grown, equipment used, soil, water available, electricity availability, transportation, and sale of crops are all different. In spite of this wide variation, all of these various farm types provide food for themselves and their neighbors.

To begin studying world food three farms from three different places-the Philippines, Ecuador, and the United States-have been chosen to serve as examples of the wide variety of farms in the world. These are not necessarily representative farms in the world or the particular country but rather are used to show the diversity and range of farms. Figures 1.1 and 1.2 show the locations of the farms in the world and relative sizes of the three countries.

1.1 THE FACE OF SUBSISTENCE FARMING IN THE PHILIPPINES: DONIO

Henry Y. Goltiano

Celedonio Derecho is 57 years old, his wife Sita is 47, and his youngest son Roger is 12, as seen in Figure 1.3. Donio, to all who know him, has been farming in Baryo (village) Hibunawan for 35 years. Hibunawan is a farming village about 5 km (1.6093 km = 1 mile) from the center of the town of Baybay, Leyte, Philippines. The road to Hibunawan is a mixture of sand, gravel, and soil that gets nasty during rainy season and dusty during the dry season (Fig. 1.4).

Farming has been Donio''s life. He worked for about 3 years in an ice-cream factory in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, but when he went home to Hibunawan for a short vacation, he was so smitten with Rosita Pancito that he decided not to go back to Manila and instead "married" Rose who was a 12-year-old girl (Donio was 22). Since marrying, Donio has been tilling the soil. He started as hired labor on neighboring farms while Sita worked on other farms, usually weeding. Donio''s parents were tenant farmers, and, when they were too old and weak to work, they handed the farms they tenanted to Donio who lives with Sita in a house adjacent to the farms and about 30 m away from the road; see Figure 1.5. Transportation to the house is either by paying someone with a motorcycle to carry you or to ride in a side-car-equipped motorcycle.

Donio''s Fields. Donio tills one rice field and two corn fields (Fig. 1.6).

Rice Field. The rice field with an area of 2070 [m.sup.2] (0.207 ha, 0.511 acre) is just at the back of their house. At a market value of P100,000 to P150,000 ($1902.59 to $2853.88) per hectare, the area can sell for P40,000 ($761.04) at most. Because the farm is rainfed, Donio can plant rice only twice a year.

Donio is a lessee of this farm owned by a Manila, the country''s capital, resident. The owner has a caretaker who comes to the village during harvest to collect the rent. As lessee, Donio pays a fixed rent of three sacks of tipasi (Cebuano for newly harvested rice), regardless of yield fluctuation. However, in the case of an extremely bad harvest, rent is negotiated. Rent is to be agreed upon by the lessee, the landowner, and the Department of Agrarian Reform after determining the average harvest in three cropping seasons.

Maize Fields. Donio has two maize fields. One has an area of 6580 ]m.sup.2] (0.658 ha, 1.62 acres). The other has 6900 [m.sup.2] (0.690 ha, 1.70 acres). Both farms are owned by a resident of Hibunawan and could sell for about P100,000 ($1902.59).

From the smaller rice farm, Donio shares 50 percent of the harvest with the owner. His 50 percent is further divided by two because Donio is a sublessee. Thus Donio gets only 25 percent net share of the harvest. Donio gets a "fairer" deal with the bigger farm because he is the lessee. He shares the net harvest only with the owner, who gets 50 percent. The owner provides nothing other than the land.

Other Crops. Aside from rice and maize, Donio has banana and cassava (Mahinot esculenta, a root crop presented in Chapter 3) planted in some areas around his larger corn field; see Figure 1.6. In the yard at his house he has a patch of sweet potato (Ipomea batatas), which he raises for ganas, the young leaves that are prepared as vegetable. He also has a few gabi (Colocasia esculenta), which is another root crop. It does not appear that Donio applies any improved management practices to these crops, even though his banana plants are affected by tibak or bugtok, a bacterial disease caused by a strain of Ralstonia solanacearum.

Rice Farming Practices. Donio plants only rice in his rice field, which is rainfed, and so he plants in January and June or when it rains. Controlling the amount of water in a rice paddy is important in obtaining a good yield. Because he is dependent on-or at the mercy of-rain, Donio cannot control the amount of water in the field, which may remain flooded when it needs to be drained or remain dry when water is needed by the crop.

Nelson L. Caba?a is the extension agent assigned in Barangay Hibunawan where Donio lives. He has been encouraging Donio and other farmers to follow new technological practices. Donio, however, does not follow these recommendations because he does not have the resources. For example, choice of seeds is the first step in any successful harvest, but Donio obtains his seed from his previous harvest and not from seed growers because the price for him is prohibitive.

In the Philippines rice seedlings are grown and transplanted to the rice paddy, where it grows and matures. In preparing seedlings, Donio follows the Dapog method (see below), which is not as costly as the wet-bed method; see Figure 1.7. In dapog, the seedbed can be made in the yard of the house, thus requiring less labor compared to the wet-bed method, which is prepared in the paddy, and thus requires some land preparation and higher labor cost.

Nelson recommends that the field be harrowed two to three times before transplanting because thorough land preparation helps control weeds before transplanting. Donio harrows the field only once to lessen expenses.

Donio says that he does not have many problems with pests. It is possible that he has but just does not recognize their occurrence because he does not attend farmer''s training. If he recognized the presence of pests, he may ignore them because of his incapacity to control them. He says that the only pests that bother his rice farm are rats and golden snails, locally called kuhol. He does not do anything against the rats because he believes they will become nastier if attacked or killed. He just "pleads" with them not to devour all his plants but leave something for his family''s needs. Kuhol are picked up and thrown into the road to be crushed by passing vehicles.

Kuhol was introduced in the country in the 1980s as a means of addressing protein deficiency in farm communities, but it spread so fast that they have become pests. While edible, most farmers do not eat them because of their odd smell. However, in extreme cases, when they do not have food (viand) farmers cook and eat the big kuhol.

Weeds are removed by the family by hand or using weeding machines, which Donio rents (Fig. 1.8); Donio does not hire anyone to help them. They pull weeds by hand or dig them using a guna (short bolo). Sometimes when there are excessive weeds, they use Rogue, a herbicide, which costs about P300 ($5.70) a quart. Another way weeds are controlled is by keeping the rice field filled with water to suppress growth. According to Nelson, while this practice works, it also curbs the growth of rice, and Donio''s ability to control water is limited as noted above.

It is advised that soil analysis be done to determine what and how much plant nutrients a farm needs. However, Donio does not have the money to do this. Plant nutrients come from hay and stubble that are plowed into the soil as organic fertilizer, and Donio applies a 50-kg bag of urea (1 kg = 1000 g or approximately 2.2 lb), which he splits, applying half before transplanting and the other half at panicle initiation. The recommended amount is two bags per hectare. Since the farm is only 0.207 ha, he should apply 40 kg before transplanting and about 10 kg at panicle initiation. After harvest and threshing Donio sun dries his tipasi by spreading it on a mat laid on the area around the house or rice paddy, see Figure 1.9.

Maize Farming Practices. Donio''s corn fields are also monocropped, that is, he grows only one crop on the same land year after year. Donio plants maize three times a year: January, May, and August. The last planting is usually affected by typhoons that come during the last months of the year. Donio gets his maize seed from his previous harvest, selecting the biggest and fullest bodied ears as seed sources.

He uses only the carabao drawn plow (Fig. 1.10) and harrow (Fig. 1.11) in preparing the soil for planting. While two or more plowings and several harrowings are recommended, he plows and harrows once. Rosita describes the harrowing of their maize field as sinampayu, or cursory.

As with the rice farm, no soil analysis was done and Donio just applies one bag of urea per area about a month after planting. Before planting application of four bags of complete fertilizer is recommended. Two bags of urea 25 to 30 days after planting are also recommended. Thus, for each of his maize fields Donio needs almost three bags of complete fertilizer and about one and one-third bag of urea. Unlike in the rice field where hay and stubble are mixed with the soil during plowing, stubble and other plant parts in the maize fields are removed at harrowing using the calcag (maize field harrow).

To control weeds in maize, Donio and his family use weeding machines and hand weeding. They do not set a particular number of hours to weed each day. Weeding is done when their time and other activities permit. Just like the rice farm, they do not have problems with pests, except for rats, which they just "talk" to.

Harvested maize is husked, shelled, and dried in the field by spreading kernels on mats as is done with rice shown in Figure 1.8. When it is rainy, ears are hung inside the farmhouse, and husked ears are spread on the farm house elevated floor. The floor is made of bamboo slats; see Figure 1.12, so air flows freely and allows maize to dry. To shell the maize, they use a manual banguran, or Sheller. About 120 kg of clean grain can be shelled in 8 hours.

Daily Routine. Donio usually wakes up at 4 a.m. so that he can work during the cooler part of the day. After checking in and around the house, he moves out to his farms when there is a little streak of light. He weeds the fields, feeds the weeds to the year-old carabao he is taking care of, and allows the carabao to graze where there are grasses. He then brings the carabao to the suba (river) to lunang (wallow). After that he does other farmwork and, when done, goes home and does other work in and around the house and then relaxes. At about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, he fetches the carabao. This routine is disrupted only when he gets the opportunity to work somewhere off the farm such as on a construction job.

The family usually eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, except when farm-work interferes. At times Donio cannot join the family for breakfast when he cannot return early enough from the farm. During planting, weeding, and harvest season, the family cannot have lunch together when Donio, Sita, and Nano work in other farms. They are, however, mostly together during dinner. Their usual meal consists of either a combination of fish, ginamos (salted fish paste), buwad (dried fish), and utan (vegetables). Sita prepares breakfast and cares for a female carabao and its 3-month-old calf. Daughter Genedina helps in the household chores during weekends when she is not in school.

For the most part, except for rice and maize grain, any purchased food is fresh every day and immediately eaten because Donio and Sita have no way to store food. People selling fish or meat or other food items will pass by the house every day making their produce easily available. There are some exceptions to this general situation. Dried fish and to a lesser extent beef, which may be stored without refrigeration, may be available. After dinner at about 6 p.m., they watch TV at Donio''s brother''s house, who is a neighbor.

Farm Tools. Donio owns simple farm tools; a plow (daro) (Fig. 1.10), harrow (sudlay) (Fig. 1.11), one single weeding machine, one double weeding machine (Fig. 1.8 inset), and one maize field harrow (calcag) (Fig. 1.11) made of iron. An iron plow like Donio''s costs about P1,500 ($28.54). An iron harrow costs about P1,300 ($24.73). A single weeding machine is P350 ($6.66) and a double one is P500 ($9.51). Donio rents other farm implements like a tractor and a thresher as needed; see Figure 1.13.

Donio also has a wooden rake (kandos) used in mixing grain when drying, a wooden lining board (bagis) used in marking the rice paddy so that planters know where to plant the seedlings, and a wooden yoke (yugo) for his carabao. He also has a wooden mortar and pestle (lusong and alho), a maize shelling board (banguran), and bamboo gong (karatong) (Fig. 1.14) struck with bamboo stick to inform farmworkers that food is ready. Sickle (garab), bolo (sundang), and guna (a shorter version of the bolo) are among Donio''s smaller farm tools (Fig. 1.14). A bolo is a long (~45 cm, or 18 inches) wide knife that is an all-purpose utility farming implement.

Farm Animals. Donio has chickens (Fig. 1.15) that freely roam around the house and the neighborhood. Most of the food for the chickens comes from the surrounding environment; however, he feeds them with some grain kernels and bran. The hens give the family both meat and eggs. Donio only sells them when money is urgently needed.

Aside from chickens, Donio does not own any other farm animal, although he does have a dog. He is caring for a year-old carabao owned by a neighbor, which he feeds, takes to the river to wallow (Fig. 1.16), and does other things to ensure the carabao''s wellbeing. He also trains the carabao for farmwork. For his efforts, he gets three-fourths of the carabao, P6000 to 10,000 ($114 to $190), and the owner gets one-fourth if sold. Wife Sita also cares for a neighbor''s carabao and its 3-month-old calf. She gets paid P100 ($1.90) a week for this task.

In addition to his house, Donio has a farm shed on one of their adjacent maize fields about half a kilometer away from the road. The farm shed is only one 2.5-[m.sup.2] room where harvest and some farm tools are stored, is made of indigenous materials, wood and bamboo as is their house. The house floor is raised about a meter from the ground and is made of bamboo slats. Under the floor is a space where chopped wood and coconut husks for fuel are stored. Adjoining the room is the kitchen and work area. The roof above the area is made of nipa and the floor is the ground, which becomes muddy when it rains. At the front wall of the farmhouse is an overhang with a stall for resting or keeping farm tools.

The estimated farm shed cost is a P1000 ($19.02) because Donio did not buy most of the materials and did not put value on his labor. But if all are included the value of his farm shed is about P4000 ($76.10). Except for the farm shed, Donio has not made any major or permanent investment in the farms because they are not his.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from World Foodby Alfred R. Conklin Thomas Stilwell Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
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